So I made a bunch of master patterns the other day, for Eddie. Slopers/Blocks whatever. I call them bases :) bodices and sleeves and pants in every size from newborn to 18months.

It's a good jumping off point for my next adventure. I still have so much work to do but it's nice to have a goal to work toward :)

This post already sounds a bit weird, I think it's because it's 2.30am and I have spent the last fortnight being woken up every hour by an adorable little piglet. I say it lovingly, but I am so so so tired.

This post isn't about sleep deprivation though! It's about this cute little top! It's the second version I've sewn up of the Chromium Tunic.

This flavour is 'vintage pillowcase' in 'Sesame Street'

I love how it turned out, it's lovely and lightweight. I didn't interface the collar because I was just testing the new & improved version of this pattern.

It's a go :) I lengthened the placket from last time, and the tunic length a little. It's a fun sew!

I enjoyed placing the pieces on the pillowcase and trying to make the most of the pattern, incorporating the little details into the shirt. A lot of my friends on Instagram reminisced a lot! It seems it was a popular children's sheet choice back in the day!

Now to draft up this tunic in other sizes & try those out. If you didn't get my totally vagueness up there, I'm going to start making proper patterns. This is like 3rd on the list, but I felt like starting in the middle.

:)

Also I used the blogger app on my phone. It's pretty basic and I am not loving it. All my photos are at the bottom, wehh! We are currently camping, it's a lot of fun! This post is probably the strangest post I've written, my brain is so sluggy, I took the photos at Plainlands which is like a rest stop while driving between Brisbane & Toowoomba. Edison had already demolished some ham & cucumber and I thought it would be the greatest idea to take pics of her while vin was on the playground. Oh brain, you so funny.

If you haven't heard about the Sun & Surf blog tour by now, then I just don't know what I'm going to do with you! Let me fill you in real quick: A blog tour is where someone who has created a pattern, or fabric, or written a book, sends a bunch of blogs their product. Those blogs promote it, and it goes on a little tour, or a blog hop! Each day, one blog has the spotlight on them to show off what they made. Today it's my day for this particular tour!

The Sun & Surf Collection is brought to you by four amazing ladies in the 'sewing-for-kiddies' blogosphere, or as I like to label them on my reader, DIY Mamas! Together, Andrea, Kate, Melly & Shauna came up with an amazing collection together. They called their gang Pattern Anthology, and I'm pretty sure we will see more of these ladies {well I hope so anyway!}. There are more details at the base of this post, but for now do you wanna see what I made? Of course you do!

Let's start with the Surfer Slacks! I am a massive fan of See Kate Sew patterns {I have sewn the Sugar Plum dress over and over}, so it was a no-brainer to choose the Surfer Slacks when I was given the choice what to make.

I used a pair of second-hand jeans I bought at the op-shop. I've been making boy pants for a long long time now, and since he's in Kindy now I try and make him clothes that are going to stand up to his high-intensity playing {yeh man, in Australia it's government-approved pre-prep. He learns stuff! He's not a little kid anymore. He told me the other day he learned that a tree fell on all the dinosaurs and that is why they are instinct...}. So the jeans I bought were soft so he would be comfortable, and the denim had a bit of stretch to it. They were an adult's pair, and I managed to use pretty much the entire things as fabric for these slacks.

For the waistband and the cuffs I use a t-shirt my dad donated to me for my cutting-things-up-to-make-other-things obsession. It's like a blue grey, and super worn so it is so soft. I really wish these pants fit me because they are probably the most comfortable thing in Vince's wardrobe!

So see the part where there are no buttons on the back pockets? Yeh I DID have these cool orange buttons on, but then the fabric that I originally chose for the pullover didn't arrive in time and so in the end the orange just didn't cut it. I pulled them off, and meant to sew some more buttons on but I forgot. Oops! The buttons were part of my winnings for Project Run & Play from Lots Of Buttons. I chose mostly black buttons, but I had to get these orange ones for fun. They remind me of little orange slices.

These Surfer Slacks came up really easy and fast. I loved the little trick to get the back pockets rounded, although I changed up the way I finished them. The pattern gets you to stitch the pockets on, stitch the tabs on, then sew on the buttons. Since I like to use my machine to stitch my buttons on, I stitched the buttons to the pockets first, then attached them to the pants and then the tabs.

Vincent is a tall almost-4 year old, and these pants fit him perfectly.. I used the 3T pattern, his waist is 21 inches, but I thought the 2T would be too short for him. The waistband has elastic threaded through it, so you can make it as small or wide as you like. The fact that the cuffs can roll up and down mean that these bad boys will be getting a lot of wear for quite some time. He's slender {we call him Skinny Vinnie} and since we are heading into winter over here, I'm pretty sure you will see more Surfer Slacks around these parts! The pattern comes in sizes 2T to 6 and are quite suitable for a beginner!

I have already made three more pairs of Surfer Slacks for Vince, they're going to be great for kindy!

I also made Vincent a Beachy Boatneck shirt. I'm quite confident making t-shirts now, but this was my first t-shirt like this. It has a facing, and I really loved the new technique! It came together so quickly, and I LOVE the fit. This is one of those patterns I will definitely be using more often. The boatneck is perfect, not too girly for Vince, and the 3/4 sleeves and the curved hem? Love it all. LOVE. IT. ALL. {You hear me Melly?}

The fabric is a rainbow gradient from Girl Charlee, I got it as part of my winnings from Project Run & Play. Unfortunately I think I must have snagged the last of it because there doesn't seem to be any of it left. It was called "Rainbow Gradient Stripe" or something with those words in it if you want to search for it another time. it's a great fabric, but even after I washed this shirt, Vincent is complaining that it's too itchy. It must just be one of those unfortunate fabrics that are amazing, but just not great. I still have some left, so if I use it for clothing {what else would I use it for? lol} I will have to line it.

Finally, I finished this look off by using the Submarine Pullover! When I started thinking of making an overall look for this tour {wow can you tell I've got some Project Run & Play hangover still?}, I wanted it to reflect the Australian beaches of summer. My favourite beaches are up at the Sunshine Coast at Maroochydore and Caloundra and all the towns around there, but mostly down in New South Wales around Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads. I love how laid back it is at those southern beaches, everything is so chilled out and you can really get into vacation mode even if you're only there for a few hours. Of course we couldn't pile the kids into the car for 3 hours to take a few pics, so we settled for the Wynnum waterfront in Brisbane :)

I bought this fabric off Etsy to make the pullover, but since I live in Australia, shipping from anywhere outside of my country takes F O R E V E R. So on Friday, when it hadn't arrived yet, I needed a plan B. I was a bit bummed, because the Indian cotton was exactly what I was imagining this hoodie up in.

So I went to my studio and looked at all my fabrics and nothing was what I wanted. Then I found this humoungous plaid collared t-shirt that my dad gave me. I had wanted to make Vince a little hoodie out of it, so I wondered if it would be enough for the Submarine Pullover.

I couldn't believe it, but it was!! I was able to cut the entire pattern in a size 4 from ONE SHIRT. One outside hood piece is piece together from scraps, but the rest fit great. The inside of the fabric was this maroon colour, so I flipped the sleeve, placket, hood lining & breast pocket patterns when cutting them out.

The GIANT buttons are apparently antique, and came from Holland with my Oma's sister. My bad. Mum flipped when she saw them, but I justified using them because they have been sitting in our button box for YEARS and YEARS not being used. She was okay with it, as long as I salvage them if this pullover ever gets chucked.

Yeh no, that won't happen. I LOVE THIS HOODIE.

Since it's made from t-shirt material, and old second-hand from my dad t-shirt material, it is so soft and worn. It just drapes so well. And this pattern is like the perfect hoodie pattern. The smallest size is a 2T, but I am definitely going to resize the hell out of this pattern because Edison needs one this winter!

Since we're the last stop of the tour, if you haven't already, head over to check out the previous blogs that have sewn stuff up for this tour too! They are listed below:

You can buy these patterns over at Pattern Anthology, today is the last day to purchase them at the discounted price as bundles. You can buy the whole collection of 8 patterns for little guys & little girls {2T-6}for $39.95, OR you can buy the boy bundle {Surf Collection} consisting of the three patterns I used here plus the Coastal Cargos OR the girl bundle {Sun Collection} consisting of the Carousel Top, the Boardwalk Skirt, the Santa Monica Cinch Jacket and the Sunshine Dress for $24.95 per collection.

So um, don't delay! Get over there you guys. Stop reading this. I'm serious. Get goin'. Shoo! Click and go!

Do you ever find projects that you've shoved in the corner of your sewing space and wonder why you didn't finish them? This is one of them. I made an entire sunsuit for Eddie about 4 months ago, and all it needed was buttons & buttonholes.

This was the 1 year old size, it's a little roomy on Eddie {except for the thighs, man! Legitimate drumsticks that girl has!}. I didn't hem the ruffles and I'm regretting it already. In future, all ruffles will be hemmed. I'm not really a fan of the frayed look!

Anyway I was looking for something else in my sewing room and found this all folded up in my pile of to-finish. I grabbed some buttons, some crappy thread, and somehow bent a needle with the buttons I used trying to sew them on. Eh, whatever! They're on now!

Now she has something fun to wear when we head to the beach to take pics for my next blog post :) Stay tuned, Sunday yo!

Nope. She can't crawl yet! 8 months and still quite content to sit on her butt. This is actually the first time she's held herself up on all fours, girl has no upper body strength! I like it though. She stays where I plop her.

Disclaimer: This is a JOKE post. I absolutely LOVE LoubeeClothing, the patterns, the gorgeous girl behind them {Sarah!}and the face of them{ Emmy!}. It's a running joke that I always seem to capture Edison having a whinge whenever I show Sarah the snaps of my tests for her patterns. In fact it's pretty much every day one of my kids will be in something I have made from LouBeeClothing patterns: be it Vincent in Hosh pants, or Edison in a Doli or a Bimaa.

It's been raining here for months it feels like, I have no idea what happened to our summer, but now that it's a few days into Autumn it's already cold!

Eddie had an awesome wardrobe of lovely shorts and dresses and cute tees in corals and mints, I'm really not into pink anymore {excuse the leggings she's wearing ahah} so I chose all these pretty pastel colours. And now she has nothing to wear because it's too cold for her new things!

Lucky I'm still on a stash-busting kick, and I pulled out a few shirts that were headed to the op shop to resize for the little girl. I made her a whole heap of long-sleeved shirts the other night.

I drafted a quick tee pattern for her from a cute little long-sleeved shirt I had her in a few days ago. This first shirt was a frilly tee I bought when I was pregnant with Vincent. it was like my 'nice' shirt to wear if we went to 'nice' places. I didn't wear it once during my pregnancy with Edison. I hated it. I kept the frill at the neck and resized it to a small shirt for Eddie, the sleeves are made out of the bottom sides of the original tee.

I op-shopped this shirt during Project Run & Play when I was looking for ideas for Spots & Stripes week. I was originally going to hand print a spots & stripes tribal idea onto a shirt, but scrapped the idea. Then I found this tribal print tee for reconstructing another day.

It was an adult-sized midriff top that was a bit mullety at the back. I kept the dip at the back.

This shirt was originally Vincent's. I loved it, I love striped tees on him, but I unwisely let him wear it one day while we were painting. The paint never came out, but instead of getting rid of it I sized it down and made a stamp out of craft foam & a cotton spool

There were a few spots of paint on the chest of the shirt, which I covered up easily enough, then decided to keep stamping. I did some stamps down the sleeve and then one at the centre back too.

Cool Fabric Stamping Tutorials
Here's a bunch of cool ways to stamp and print fabric that I have found:Lines Across stamps using craft foam & a wood blockA Beautiful Mess herringbone stamp using craft foam and cardboardCut and Paste stamp using a pencil eraserSee Kate Sew uses a stamp & fabric inkPaper n Stitch stamps using craft foam & an old film cannister

About me

Hi! Welcome to Max California!

I'm Ari and this is my DIY blog for people who aren't your vanilla mama. It's nerdy, it's grungy, it's outside the box, it's got two kickass kids and many free sewing tutorials and patterns just for you!